Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tamburlaine, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Honor
Fortune and Destiny
Beauty and Violence
Religion and Blasphemy
Summary
Analysis
Act 1, Scene 1. In the Persian capital of Persepolis, the dimwitted king Mycetes laments the recent raids on Persian merchants by a Scythian bandit named Tamburlaine, who’s said to have vast ambitions. Mycetes dispatches the commander Theridamas to thwart Tamburlaine. Meanwhile, the king’s brother Cosroe criticizes him to his face for his weakness. Once Mycetes has gone, Cosroe reveals his plot to usurp the throne, which members of the royal court support.
Act 1, Scene 2. In Scythia, Tamburlaine is wooing the Egyptian princess Zenocrate, whom he has captured along with her servants, including Agydas. She resists, though his evident charisma has already won him the loyal followers Techelles and Usumcasane, who are fully invested in his dreams of conquest. Tamburlaine takes off his shepherd’s garb and puts on glorious armor. Word arrives of the incoming outnumbering Persian force, and Tamburlaine remains calm.
In contrast to the scene at Persepolis, Tamburlaine presents a picture of straightforward and warlike nobility, though endowed with a godlike self-assurance. His eagerness for battle, however, does not detract from his sense of chivalry and skill with women, as he employs impressive poetic speech.
Themes
Theridamas arrives, surprised to discover the mighty, impressive Tamburlaine is the lowly bandit he was told to find. Tamburlaine easily persuades Theridamas to switch sides and join him. They swear oaths of friendship and depart in high spirits. Meanwhile, Zenocrate laments her captivity.
Act 2, Scene 1. In Parthia, word returns to Cosroe of Tamburlaine’s overwhelming, almost godlike presence, and of his alliance with Theridamas. This excites Cosroe, who plans to ally with them in his coup against Mycetes for the throne.
Tamburlaine’s charisma operates even at long distance, winning Cosroe’s allegiance sight unseen. Given Cosroe’s shifty character, however, the audience might wonder how much that allegiance really means.
Themes
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Act 2, Scene 2. Meanwhile, also in Parthia, Mycetes receives word that Tamburlaine’s assembled force presents a real threat to his own. The oafish king plans to distract the presumably barbarian enemy by strewing gold about the battlefield.
Mycetes’s continuous foibles serve as a foil to the effortless leadership and self-assurance that Tamburlaine displays. The pattern of a foolish king dismissing the rumor of Tamburlaine’s threat will recur several times.
Themes
Act 2, Scene 3. Cosroe says he has placed all his hope on Tamburlaine, who responds that his hope is well placed because he, Tamburlaine, has his victory assured by fates and oracles. The crew prepares for battle with Mycetes.
Tamburlaine here spells out at greater length his earlier allusions to an astrological guarantee of his destiny, which is for nothing less than world domination. Whether this true or an incredible illustration of Tamburlaine’s confidence remains unknown.
Themes
Act 2, Scene 4. Mycetes curses war and ridiculously attempts to hide his crown so it cannot be stolen. Tamburlaine catches him in the act, but he insists on returning the crown to the king so that he can defeat him in proper battle.
Again, the ridiculous Mycetes embodies all the weaknesses of a ruler that Tamburlaine lacks. In this encounter, Tamburlaine demonstrates his code of martial and personal honor.
Themes
Act 2, Scene 5. Later, Mycetes has been defeated, and Tamburlaine now bestows the king’s crown on Cosroe. Cosroe makes Tamburlaine regent of Persia and then departs amidst glorious plans for restoring the empire his brother mismanaged. Tamburlaine, enthused by Cosroe’s regal pomp, declares that he himself can and should take the Persian crown. He and his men happily decide to attack Cosroe as soon as possible, and they win the crown in a mere “jest.”
Tamburlaine’s decision to attack Cosroe is plainly a betrayal, and thus seemingly a violation of his code of honor. Yet, Tamburlaine openly planned to seize the Persian crown from the beginning, so one wonders whether Cosroe is not to blame for assuming he could reap the rewards of Tamburlaine’s military triumph.
Themes
Act 2, Scenes 6-7. An outraged Cosroe and his men resolve to destroy Tamburlaine but are themselves swiftly defeated. As Cosroe dies cursing him, Tamburlaine cites Jove as his precedent for seizing the crown and claims that nature has designed man for unceasing ambition. Theridamas, Techelles, and Usumcasane declare that this ambition is what has won their fealty to Tamburlaine. They enthusiastically declare him king of Persia.
Tamburlaine demonstrates what will again and again prove to be his invincibility in battle. This quality goes hand in hand with both his limitless ambition and his flippant blasphemy, as he casually compares himself to Jove. Winning the Persian crown is the first confirmation of his earlier prophecies.
Themes
Act 3, Scene 1. In Constantinople, Turkish Emperor Bajazeth is laying siege. He and his allied North African kings discuss the rumored threat of Tamburlaine’s expanding conquest, and they decide to dispatch an envoy demanding that he not set foot in Africa or Greece. Bajazeth seems quite secure in his immense power.
Bajazeth is another of many rulers who are enraged by the presumptuousness of a lowly Scythian shepherd even to attempt to challenge their long-established imperial might.
Themes
Act 3, Scene 2. Back in Asia Minor, Agydas asks Zenocrate what’s bothering her, and it seems she’s lovesick and tormented over Tamburlaine. Agydas dismisses Tamburlaine as a brute and claims that they will soon be rescued, chiding Zenocrate for losing thought of her existing fiancé, the King of Arabia. But Zenocrate seems to feel real love and reverence for Tamburlaine. Meanwhile, Tamburlaine has entered the scene unseen and overhears Agydas’s contemptuous speech. He appears scowling and wordlessly leads Zenocrate away, terrifying Agydas. A moment later, Techelles appears offering a dagger, and Agydas instantly understands that Tamburlaine has allowed him to kill himself to prevent a more awful death, which he promptly does.
We have seen no onstage interaction between Tamburlaine and Zenocrate since the initial scene of her capture, but evidently, he has been successful in wooing her, to the point that she has fallen for him. Agydas’s objections thus make little difference to Zenocrate. Tamburlaine is usually so ready to unleash a torrent of brutal words on his foes that his wordless condemning of Agydas to suicide here is rather uncharacteristic.
Themes
Act 3, Scene 3. Bajazeth’s envoy arrives, and Tamburlaine and his men utterly dismiss his threats, urging the emperor to send more men so they will have greater loot. Bajazeth himself then appears and verbally spars with Tamburlaine. As they prepare a battlefield, Zenocrate and Bajazeth’s wife Zabina stay behind to continue verbally sparring on their respective lovers’ behalf. The men shortly return, with Tamburlaine’s forces having utterly defeated those of Bajazeth. Bajazeth and Zabina lament their new imprisonment, while Tamburlaine now lays out a clear geographic program for world domination.
As yet another monarch suffers the unthinkable (namely, defeat at the hands of Tamburlaine), the Scythian warlord’s plans for world domination seem more and more realistic. Zenocrate establishes herself as firmly behind Tamburlaine in her ancillary verbal battle with Zabina. Tamburlaine’s imprisonment of the Turkish royal couple hints at a previously undisclosed element of sadism in his character.
Themes
Act 4, Scene 1. In Memphis, the Soldan of Egypt gets word of the terror of Tamburlaine’s advancing horde. His advisers warn him that Tamburlaine’s force is irresistible and that he employs a system when waging siege: the first day, he pitches white tents to indicate that he will spare the inhabitants if they surrender. If they don’t he pitches red tents the next day, indicating that no grown males will be spared. If again they don’t surrender, he pitches black tents, promising that no one in the city will be spared at all. The Soldan, furious that this barbarian has captured his daughter, refuses to budge an inch and vows revenge.
The Soldan’s fury and dismissal of Tamburlaine is in keeping with what the play has illustrated about the other monarchs, but perhaps more understandable given the Soldan’s personal ire over Zenocrate’s abduction. Tamburlaine’s system of colored flags creates a vivid image of his brutality, which is at the same time a total honesty about his intentions.
Themes
Act 4, Scene 2. At his siege of Damascus, Tamburlaine uses the imprisoned Bajazeth as a footstool. Bajazeth and Zabina violently curse him, but he is unfazed, declaring his intent to keep them in his caravan, caged and fed with scraps. Zenocrate begs Tamburlaine to pity Damascus, where her kinsmen live, but he says that if he must put up the black tents, he will be true to his word.
Tamburlaine’s cruel treatment of Bajazeth further teases out his capacity for sadism. His declaration that he will not bend from his martial custom even to spare Zenocrate’s kinsmen further fleshes out the harshness of his code of honor, an insistence on keeping his word at all costs.
Themes
Act 4, Scene 3. Nearby, the Soldan and the King of Arabia prepare for war with Tamburlaine, whom they equally detest. They are both eager for revenge for his abduction of Zenocrate.
Zenocrate has apparently forgotten her fiancé, the King of Arabia, with ease, but his introduction here foreshadows a confrontation.
Themes
Act 4, Scene 4. Damascus has still not surrendered, and Tamburlaine has raised the red flags while reveling and feasting outside their walls. He continues sparring with Bajazeth, whom he allows just enough food to keep alive. Zenocrate is distraught, still pleading with Tamburlaine to spare Damascus, but he insists he cannot, then spells out his plans for further conquest.
Tamburlaine’s full embodiment of the ruthless warlord has become an undeniable fact. Still, he is merely continuing to carry out his word, in accordance with the destiny he claims has been assured to him by the stars.
Themes
Act 5, Scenes 1-2. Tamburlaine’s tents have gone black, and the Governor of Damascus dispatches a troop of vestal virgins to plead with Tamburlaine for the city’s lives.
When the girls come to plead with Tamburlaine, he acts as if the matter is already decided and simply beyond his control. As far as Tamburlaine seems to believe, it really is: he thinks that his word is as good as fact. He does not rejoice in having the girls slaughtered and even seems somewhat annoyed by it, but by no means does he experience pity.
Themes
Act 5, Scene 2, continued. Left to himself, Tamburlaine laments that his brutality has so distressed Zenocrate. He meditates on the nature of beauty and the limits of poetry.
This soliloquy is unique in the play for the state of introspection and uncertainty that seizes Tamburlaine in it. He does not regret his brutal acts, but he cannot comprehend Zenocrate’s grief and the distress it causes him.
Themes
Techelles returns with word that Damascus has fallen to them, and that the Soldan and King of Arabia are approaching. Upon Theridamas’s recommendation, Tamburlaine agrees to spare the Soldan when he defeats him, for Zenocrate’s sake.
Theridamas further establishes himself as a voice of reason, perhaps the only man who can change Tamburlaine’s mind and mollify his temper. In unthinkably choosing to withhold his potential for slaughter, Tamburlaine further demonstrates his real affection for Zenocrate.
Themes
Bajazeth spitefully despairs of ever being released, and he runs against his cage bars to kill himself. Zabina, upon discovering his body, does the same.
Thus far, Bajazeth and Zabina have provided a kind of savage comic relief, but the desperation and brutality of their suicides casts light on the real sadness of their situation and the costs of Tamburlaine’s cruelty.
Themes
Zenocrate is horrified by the slaughter of the virgins and even more distraught when she finds the bodies of Bajazeth and Zabina. She laments how things have gone, but she remains genuinely torn by her unfailing love for Tamburlaine.
Zenocrate’s horror is what one would expect, but her continued attachment to Tamburlaine is certainly not. His charisma must be great indeed.
Themes
The King of Arabia enters, fatally wounded. Zenocrate and he share a sorrowful, tender moment as he dies. Tamburlaine returns with the Soldan alive, overjoying Zenocrate.
The King of Arabia’s dying words establish him as a noble and sensitive figure, certainly more so in the traditional sense than Tamburlaine. Zenocrate’s preference for the latter remains inscrutable.
Themes
Tamburlaine proudly takes stock of his brutal accomplishments up to this point. The Soldan acknowledges that Tamburlaine has some kind of divine favor and concedes Zenocrate to him in marriage, again overjoying her. Zenocrate is crowned queen of Persia. Tamburlaine calls for preparations for the wedding, ordering for the King of Arabia to receive a proper burial and declaring a momentary “truce with all the world.”
Part One ends with joy all around, in the midst of dead bodies. Tamburlaine again demonstrates an odd degree of chivalry in ordering the honorable burial of his erstwhile rival, the King of Arabia. His momentary truce with the world will be momentary indeed, as we will see in Part Two.
Themes
